The Archibalds

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The Archibald Prize is an annual prize for portraiture in Australia.

Every year the thirty or so finalists go on tour and I try to catch them when they are in Victoria. This year they were on display at the stunning Tarrawarra Museum (and winery) in the Yarra Valley.

The winner was a painting of Australian artist Margaret Ollie. (Above)

To put its size in perspective, here is a picture of the artist with Margaret, in front of the painting:




A fascinating cross-section of styles on display and then lunch at the winery.

Not very hard to take at all!
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Pantry lights

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A bit of mid-winter warmth in the pantry...

...from a little fairy in the window.

Capital!

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Just back from visiting our glorious capital, Canberra for a few days.

The driver for the visit was the presence of an exhibit of paintings from Paris' Musée D'Orsay; a wonderful collection of impressionist art.

Highlights of the trip - the Musée D'Orsay exhibit, the National Portrait Gallery, the High Court, new and old Parliament Houses, a number of lovely meals, and Qantas loosing our suitcase for the second time.

Now, to fight through the mail, real and e,...

Latte Arty

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Coffee cups. Almost looks like snake skin.

But no...


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Bit of a dabble...

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It the Queen's birthday.

Well, no, it's not really but it is the day we commoners are given off to celebrate the event.

So, as it's raining outside I started revisiting the painting I started back in April.

Still some work to do but it's moving along.

This is was the original looked like when first blocked out:

I am continuing with the three segments separately so they will be slightly different from each other but still part of a whole.
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Work in Progress

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Still a way to go but it has been nice to return to painting again.

Have really just blocked out shapes and colours so far but can see where it's heading.

It is on three separate canvasses, fixed to two battens. Destined to be hung slightly separated.

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Vincent

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"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul
and yet no one ever came to sit by it.
Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney
and continue on their way. "

On this day, in 1888, Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear.

Apparently he presented it to a prostitute called Racheal. (It's not recorded what she said but "F#ck me!" would probably have been suitable at a number of levels.)
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You can lead(light) a fairy to water...

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Last December I did some leadlight panels (stained glass in some circles) for a tall, thin window in our pantry. I was really happy with the results, except for one thing: I felt I had chosen badly when selecting the colour for the wings of the fairy in the bottom panel (left side, above). I felt that they were too dark. But that meant cutting into the 'finished' panel, removing the dark pieces, cutting new ones and then reassembling everything. It could all go horribly wrong.

This afternoon I bit the bullet.

And am happy with the result.
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Help! My lettuce are melting!

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We have had two days with 40+ temperatures and the garden is not happy.

Most things are limp.

I have not watered it with tap water since January 18th last year and instead have been using saved rain water, shower water and laundry water. Tomorrow I think I will call in the reserves and use some tap water. Unfortunately we are only allowed to hand water 6am - 8am, two days a week, so I will have to set the alarm. At least it wont be cold.

So what did I do to take my mind off the heat? Painted a beach scene. Still got a bit of work to do on it. Haven't painted for ages, and it shows, but nice to get going again.

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It's true! It's true!

"Siesta" by Paul Bonnard, (1867-1947)

Last night I dreamt I was sleeping with a naked woman.

When I woke, she was still there!
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Coming together 2...

Click to enlarge.

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Let's putty! (Like we've never puttied before).

Sneak preview of work on the bottom panel to the pantry window.

Tomorrow we putty.

Should be in for Margaret's return on Tuesday.

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I am still wondering if it is too 'busy'. It may yet become a 'stand alone' panel somewhere else and a simpler second panel done for the pantry. We'll see.

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Choice Time!

Click to enlarge

It is still early days - I have to putty in the glass, clean it up and blacken the lead but it is transportable so I can put it in place to get an idea of what I might do.

Click to enlarge

Two choices:

1. Continue with the original design and put this panel in the top window.

2. Put the panel in the bottom window and do something 'lighter' for the top.

I'll think about it.
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Coming together...

Next comes the soldering...

I'm starting to warm to the idea of making this the bottom panel and making the top panel much simpler. As both panels are the same size I can put in in both spots and then decide.
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What? No buggy whips anymore?

These are horseshoe nails.

Funny headed, flat sided things of no particular beauty.

Not a big mover at the hardware stores of Melbourne but there are people who ride horses. Or have young daughter who do, so there is a native market for them.

Now I am not a 'horsy' person.

I consider that a horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.

So why do I have a jar of horseshoe nails in the shed?

For stained glass, of course.

The flat sides of the nails are good for hold glass pieces in place while you assemble the pieces. Normal round nails are not as easy to pull out of the base board and are prone to chip the edges of the glass.

The state of play with the window is that all the pieces (143 of them) for the top panel have been cut and are now waiting their appointment with the horseshoe nails. There were a few minor deviations from the original drawing (eg one flower disappeared and I ad-libbed on colours a fair bit) but, by and large, it is taking shape. Below is the jigsaw of all the pieces.


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Progress so far...

The pantry window progressed to the next stage today with the drawing up of a full sized pattern for the top panel.

Next come the task of cutting the 140+ pieces of glass.

Thank you for all the comments regarding the design.

The Cornucopia idea is a good one for a pantry but really needs a wider window to give the spread of produce. Anyway, the way I am doing it is to create two panels that will fit into the window frame behind the clear glass. It has the advantage of being a sort of double glazing. It also means if I don't like it there I can take it out and put it somewhere else.
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Pantry window - top panel

Pantry window - bottom panel

Drawing conclusions. (modified)

The above photo is of Dr Haneef, maybe a terrorist, maybe an innocent bystander. I can't tell but I have written more on my view of the politics of it all here if you are interested.

This post is not about the politics of Dr Haneef's detention but more looking at the psychology of manipulation that goes with the media.

The above photo is pretty well the only one available of the doctor and news services are reduced to courtroom sketches for variety.

The Age, a relatively liberal newspaper, draws him so:



He looks fairly innocuous; almost suburban and relaxed.

The Australian, one of Rupert's attack papers and one who views Genghis Khan as a socialist, goes for the caricature:


Mouth off-set, eyes dark, sunken and squint. A mean piece of work.

Subtle manipulation of public fears.

Of course we are not allowed to see recent photos or, worse, for the doctor to be seen in public.

You wouldn't want him to be seen as human, would you?
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Some further representations. This one from the ABC:



And this one from The Times of India.



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Consuming art.

Tho photo montage above is 5 ft by 12 ft in reality and represents the number of plastic bottles discarded in the US every five minutes. Detail photo below. It is not meant to be a criticism of the US; per capita we are all contributing the same sort of waste. The exception being the photo depicting annual handgun deaths, of course. The photos come from Chris Jordan's site.

It is something of an eye-opener.

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